adjust drum brakes---brake while in reverse?

My new 2004 Celica GT with drums in the rear, how do I adjust them? Use the parking brake or brake while the car is moving backwards?

Ned

Reply to
Ned Merrill
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they self adjust when you use the footbrake

Reply to
mrcheerful

Ned, just setting the emergency brake does it. Now if you have rear wheel disc a nd I suspect you do, you will need to turn the star wheel adjusters. Remove the wheel, then pop uout the rubber plug

Reply to
No one here

Nope, the car owner is correct. His GT model has rear drum brakes.

Toyota MDT in MO

Reply to
Comboverfish

No, he isnt correct. If its a drum, and he did mention it was, adjustment of the rear brake is done by simply applying the parking brake itself.

Reply to
No one here

Will you guys make up your minds?...pretty hilarious to read down this thread...

Reply to
Gord Beaman

Jesus, here we go. Let's recap your argumentative brilliance:

OP: "My new 2004 Celica GT with drums in the rear..."

You: "Now if you have rear wheel disc a nd I suspect you do,..."

Me: "Nope, the car owner is correct. His GT model has rear drum brakes."

You: "No, he isnt correct. If its a drum, and he did mention it was, adjustment of the rear brake is done by simply applying the parking brake itself."

So, first you tell the OP that he is probably wrong about having drum brakes in the rear. Then I correct you by saying, yes, infact, the owner of this car does REALLY have drum brakes -- and I am right.

Then you continue to contradict yourself by saying the OP isn't right, that he DOES have drum brakes. Note that we already knew this from the beginning.

In more related interest to the OP (who now has drum brakes thanks to NoOneHere's wise observation), to really adjust the brakes up it is a good idea to do it manually every 10k - 20k miles because the automatic adjustment capability will only keep the shoes from getting WAY out of adjustment.

Toyota MDT in MO

Reply to
Comboverfish

Could you please list the step-by-step procedure to do so.? The car is a 2001 camry XLE 4 cyl 46k miles. I have been adjusting the star wheel (3 clicks at the most for the fear of locking up the drums), but it doesn't seem to cut it. The parking brake travels 10 to 11 clicks and I use it everytime I park the car. I also have the Haynes Manual, but it has no information on manual starwheel adjustment .....it just says "do stops while moving forward and reverse and operate the parking brake till desired brake pedal action is acheived". I would really appreciate if you could list the procedure used at dealerships to adjust the rear drums (they've done a real good job, three times in the past), but I think US$ 35/- is too much to pay for something this easy plus the aggravation of waiting at the dealership for 3 hours.

Reply to
pintoo

"Comboverfish" wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@z14g2000cwz.googlegroups.com:

So who's on first?

Reply to
TeGGeR®

Wrong context Teg...it's "who's on first" right?...

...and as far as the question goes, the way we used to adjust the drum brakes was to block the vehicle from moving, select neutral, raise the wheel off the surface, remove the rubber dust plug on the inside bottom of the wheel, now while moving the wheel back and forth a little turn the star adjuster towards 'tighten' until you feel the shoes firmly contact the drum, then carefully loosen the star adj until the shoes are 'JUST' clear of the drum. Do the other wheel(s) the same. Some brakes have an auto adjust mechanism but different makes use this in different ways...

Reply to
Gord Beaman

So you dont like being wrong? Hey, it happens. Drum brakes in the back of a Celica are set up by using the parking brake, not by backing up as you stated. And no, you dont need to set them up manually every 10-20K miles. In fact, they will remain at optimum for the life of the shoes.

Also an MDT

Reply to
Liberals are the parasites of

First mistake, the Haynes is wrong. Rapidly apply and release the parking brake. This may take several minutes. If nothing changes, you may have frozen adjusters. Do they salt road in the winters where you live? Will require cleaning first

Reply to
Liberals are the parasites of

Another foolish response. I never said to use the parking brake or to back up. Reread the thread.

Optimum for you, maybe.

Doesn't mean you know how to read a post or understand brake systems.

Toyota MDT in MO

Reply to
Comboverfish

Gord Beaman wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@4ax.com:

Wha...? No comprende.

My '74 Mazda RX-4 had manually adjustable drums. No automatic mechanism. It was easy to adjust because the star wheel didn't have anything you had to push out of the way to make it turn either way.

Oddly, this same car had an automatically-adjusting clutch slave cylinder. The slave was right on top of the bellhousing and was very easily accessible from up top.

Reply to
TeGGeR®

Liberals are the parasites of society wrote in news:Scune.927$ snipped-for-privacy@newsread3.news.pas.earthlink.net:

You know, in all my years up here, I have yet to ever see adjusters seized unless they were incorrectly assembled or the rubber plug was missing.

Drums are pretty well sealed from the weather, and the adjusters EXPOSE thread as they work, so any corrosion or dirt moves AWAY from the female side.

All I ever see is surface rust. Sometimes you get a squeak from the shoes against the backing plate when the parking brake is applied.

Reply to
TeGGeR®

How it's supposed to work: You back up getting up to maybe 5 MPH backwards, then you get on the brakes fairly hard and stop.

It should also work if you crank on the parking brake going backwards, but since most people don't do this on a regular basis, that's not how they planned it.

If the drum brakes are adjusted loose, the adjuster mechanism will adjust them one click tighter each time you release the brake pedal, maybe two. It will take several stops to get the adjustment back to optimal if the rear shoes are way loose.

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Reply to
Bruce L. Bergman

Your rear brakes may be correctly adjusted - the problem may be in the park brake cable adustment.

Reply to
Fantom

Well, I suppose your context might be right if you were asking for a confirmation I suppose...then the answer might be "Yes, who's on first"...was that how you meant it?...

Reply to
Gord Beaman

Gord Beaman wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@4ax.com:

Comboverfish's distillation of the confusion in this thread reminded me of the famous Abbott and Costello routine, that's all.

Reply to
TeGGeR®

Of course!...that's one really hilarious skit, you ever see it in it's entirety? Look here:

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prepared to nurse sore ribs for awhile...

Reply to
Gord Beaman

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